Bartimaeus Series: Book Four: Unconscious Summons
by Full of Ennui
Summary: When Bartimaeus was dismissed by Nathaniel, something happened and Bartimaeus is still in our world, telling his story. But what happened, how, and why?Meanwhile, Kitty Jones is kidnapped...and boy, is Nathaniel mad! Yes, Nathaniel! He never left though!
1. Reminscences

**Summoned**

**Chapter One: Reminiscences **

**Bartimaeus**

I, Bartimaeus of Uruk, Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the mighty builder, Rekhyt of Alexandria, Necho of Egypt, and, a slightly more recent addition to my many names, Homo de Credo of Britain, am content and annoyed at the same time right now. It's all his fault. But, I'll admit, I am very proud of my many titles in various languages, but the last one is the one that I am most proud of. It was given to me by my master, who I just referred to as him, Nathaniel, and it means One of Trust in Latin.

Now, two years ago, if you'd told me that I'd be here right now, telling you the story of how my master and I formed an eternal bond, my essence would have turned to custard1 from laughter. If you know me or Nathaniel, or both, you must be having a very, very difficult time trying to imagine this as possible. This is most likely because you are picturing John Mandrake, Nathaniel's former magician's name.

It all started about 10 years ago, when Nathaniel was just 12. He summoned me to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkaand from a powerful magician, and I did so. He ordered me to hide it in his master's study downstairs, and I did. We ended up escaping together after destroying an extremely powerful spirit, Ramuthra.

Next, about 2 or 3 years later, he summoned me again to help him stop the Resistance, a team of magician-hating commoners with resilience to magic, and a clay Golem that had been set loose in London.

Finally, he called upon me to follow certain government members around and I helped him stop Nouda and Faquarl, the latter being an old enemy of mine that I wasn't reluctant to kill in any way. But in the process, Kitty Jones, a commoner that had provided both help and hindering in the past, showed that she trusted me completely and followed me into the Other Place, the world where spirits could find rest and peace. Nathaniel sacrificed himself for the good of the entire public, me, and, probably most important to him, Kitty.

Or so the story is around London. I, being Bartimaeus of Uruk and Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the mighty builder, Rekhyt of Egypt, Necho of Alexandria, know differently.

1. Really, you should pay better attention. I'm _positive_ that I've told you this before. Oh, well. The essence collapses completely while on the mortal plane. In the Other Place, our essences are not bound to any particular shape unless we wish them to be.


	2. Unconscious Summoning

**Unconscious Summons**

**Chapter 2: Unconscious Summons**

**Bartimaeus**

London: 1776

I paused, my eyes still shut, to feel a surge of power pass through me. Where was this power coming from? It did not feel like I was in the Other Place, simply because of that-I could feel. I opened my eyes to see another pair in front of me, the same ones that had just spoken the Dismissal to me. However, before I could gasp in shock and relief, I was whirled away.

_Now_ I was in the Other Place, but my mind was calling out, _Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel!_ I knew that he had passed on in his own world, but I still felt a wrenching pain in what would be my stomach if I had a body. However, this was in my soul, pulling me along through the rushes of light and color dancing around my point of vision.

_Bartimaeus... Bartimaeus... Bartimaeus..._

A faint, gasping voice cut through my pain and grief. I turned away from the voice in my mind, too absorbed in my silent suffering to recognize the voice.

Suddenly, I noticed a fox twisting around my side, then flopping down and panting out, _Bartimaeus... _ I saw the gape in its side and the blood at its shoulder as it passed out, and finally recognized who it was. But how? Humans could not do that! But since it was here, I tried to figure out where the being controlling it was at the time. When I noticed the shred of color lying on the, so to speak, ground, I flung myself down by its side and tried to bring it back into consciousness.

I don't know whether it was my luck, Nathaniel's, or Kitty's that brought us back to her at that exact point in time, but I don't care. All I care about is that Kitty, terrified when we had not returned nor been found in the wreckage, had raced back to the pentacle in the magician's room and tried to summon me. I transformed into a human guise and attempted to bring Nathaniel back to consciousness again. It wasn't until Kitty tapped me on the shoulder and looked at my guise, annoyed, that I realized what form I was in.

"Not trying to be making a mountain out of a molehill, but it makes it harder to concentrate when you're like that." She scrutinized the guise.

I changed my form from hers to Ptolemy's quickly, "It's automatic now..." I trailed off as I turned back to Nathaniel, seeing the look of shock upon her face.

Kitty, forgetting her next comment completely as Nathaniel stopped breathing, picked up a book from one of the bookcases in the office, scanning through it until she found what she was looking for. She showed me the page, I began reading the words on it to her in Latin, and she repeated them. Then we both leaned back and watched the healing spell begin to work, regrowing the skin, muscle, and sinew of Nathaniel's side, shoulder, and various other injuries he had procured from Nouda and the Staff.

Sighing in relief as he started breathing again, Kitty whipped her head back around to face me.

"What _happened_ in there?" She demanded savagely. It occurred to me that she might care for Nathaniel. It probably had something to do with the fact that she was spitting her words out at me, and was once more leaning protectively over Nathaniel, as if guarding him from me.

I explained about how Nathaniel had attempted to dismiss me, how I had lingered in the world a little longer, and then how he had, apparently, followed me into the Other Place. She marveled over his adventure and apologized for accusing me of doing this to him. I told her how I must have unconsciously summoned him when I thought his name out three times, and he had answered me automatically.

"So, why did you take my form?" She asked, "Because I'm sure it wasn't just because you felt like it. You said it was '_automatic.'_ Does that mean that you've assumed my form _before this?_" She scathingly inquired.

"Well, I mostly used it to _try_ to manipulate Nathaniel- no, that was _Mandrake_- into letting my essence rest in the Other Place for a while. It didn't work, but after a few times, it just became routine..." I tried justify myself, "and to try to make him feel guilty about you dying... well, I _told_ him that you died, but really you saved his life and then ran off..." I looked off thoughtfully into the distance, hoping that I looked indignant and innocent. I didn't really believe that it would work, though.

However, all my thoughts of that matter were pushed to the back of my head- no, forcefully shoved- when a slight coughing noise came from Nathaniel's throat. I leaned over him with Kitty as he opened his eyes, confused.

Then he seemed to comprehend the situation.

"There is a Heaven after all...Kitty, you died too? That's too bad, but at least we're together... Bartimaeus? What are you doing here?" Nathaniel dizzily asked in a feeble voice. His face was a usually amusing shade of puce and white, but at the moment I felt like doing anything but laughing.

"You're not dead, Nathaniel, you're alive," Kitty attempted to persuade him that he wasn't dead, and I persisted as well.

"Bartimaeus must be an illusion...yes, that would explain it..." Nathaniel muttered to himself, "Kitty? Can I tell you something? From early this morning, before we died, I've felt like...well...I owe you something...but...well, I..._really, really_ _like_ you, and I know you deserve better, but since we're dead...I think you should know that when I thought you were dead, I never stopped thinking about you, Kitty, thanks to Bartimaeus," he blushed crimson as he looked up at her face, then glanced over at me, shooting an annoyed glance.

"Hey, Bartimaeus, are you crying?" Kitty incredulously stared at Ptolemy's face as I tried to stem the flow of tears or hide them from the humans.

Caught. "Nope," I said, "It's that garlic that you left out earlier. Ptolemy's allergic, apparently." But it was a weak lie- I hadn't even known that I could cry, as a spirit.

But back to Nathaniel, he seemed to be waking up from his thinking that he was dead- the pain probably convinced him. It _has_ to hurt, being crushed by a monster and then have the shock of something as powerful as Gladstone's Staff was coursing through his veins as he released it when he dismissed me.

He was staring at us, looking at us, looking terrified.

"Tell me I didn't just say that!" He demanded of us. Typical Nathaniel.

"I would, but my mother taught me not to lie," I said sweetly, watching his eyes grow wider with my words. Typical Bartimaeus.

A/N: It may not seem so at the moment, but I have a great idea planned out for the way this story will go! Hope you enjoy it!

Jane


	3. Heartbroken, Sopranos,and Bloody Silence

Unconscious Summons

I looked up at the sky, my form gently transforming into a lizard as I began to scale the wall. Why would a powerful djinn like me be stuck fixing flagpoles, I didn't know, but I suspected it might have something to do with Nathaniel talking to Kitty on the phone...yet it was almost as though he didn't want me to hear what he was saying...why would that be?, I thought curiously to myself.  
Well, whatever the reason, I was stuck fixing this pole. As I reached the top of the wall, I cursed to myself. If it hadn't been for my orders from Nathaniel, made in the pentacle firmly, I wouldn't have been here right now. Because the flagpole's outside and the whole rooftop were both made, completely, of iron.  
Now where did that teenage terror go? The flagpole wasn't damaged at all, and I was very annoyed with Nathaniel, despite the fact that a week ago I would have sacrificed myself for him...but I wasn't willing to admit that, not yet, anyways.  
I swear, he's getting more into his Mandrake state every day, even though he now referred to himself as Nathaniel again, I cursed to myself rapidly. Well, he was gonna get a mouthful of his own medicine one day...and it won't go down well, I promised myself to keep from whirling into the room and strangling him, seeing as that would disobey one of the first rules he had given me, and I wouldn't have a happy ending. not that I would anyway, being stuck here with him and his love-bird, Kitty.  
Scooping up my tail, I launched myself off the roof and became a hawk, swerving to avoid a terrified pigeon and thrusting myself through the window into Nathaniel's office. As I landed, I became Ptolemy again and glared at Nathaniel until he looked up from his notes and attempted to sigh with frustration at me. It was thoroughly PATHETIC. He seemed to notice that he hadn't achieved the look, and appeared to give up.  
" I had to talk to Kitty, alone, and I didn't trust you not to listen in. So I forced you away." Nathaniel explained innocently, but I was still suspicious.  
"So...what were you talking about?" I asked, blinking a perfect amount of times, just as innocent as he was.  
"Nice try. Now, really, I need you to go deliver this to Ms. Piper. It is announcing her dismissal from her position of secretary, so please, please be courteous to her." Nathaniel handed a folded pink sheet to him, addressed to Ms. Rebecca Piper of Witham Lane, London, England. I grimaced and swooped out of the room, in my crow guise.

Half an hour later, I glided gracefully into his office to find him heading out to visit Kitty. I was allowed to escort him, but I couldn't stay for the talking...and whatever else ensued...

I swept out of the black car smoothly, took Nathaniel to the door, and then escaped.

Or thought I did. I was about 20 seconds out of the road when a piercing, high soprano schreech echoed from the houses on the road and bounced up to me, the imp in the sky. Forgetting all insults I had just been thinking about Nathaniel and his intentions, my mind panicked and all thoughts were send into the back of my head.

I immediately whirled around and was a peregrine falcon, racing through the air to find Nathaniel lying sobbing on the floor and a mass of blood on a desk that was now deserted.  
Kitty! Where was Kitty?!! I scanned the whole house rushedly, poking my beak around corners for just a millisecond before going to another room.

Finally, I returned to Nathaniel, all hope of finding Kitty here abandoned. I was about to criticize Nathaniel for potentially alerting the perpetrator to our presence, but stopped when I looked at Nathaniel's face. It was heartbroken.

I searched through my mind to find anything that might comfort Nathaniel and bring him back to earth from his despairing, shocked state. I could think of several things to say, but I kindly1 said the one I thought was the best to keep him from going insane2.

"So, where does she keep the plastic gloves and the dark clothing, because we're going to be going undercover..."

1. Hah! Good memories, good memories...which I regret now...desperately...

2. The worst was, "At least now we have evidence in case we get a chance to put whoever did it on trial for murder!" It would have worked so well...but this was Kitty who was gone here, and I didn't mess around when I wanted to find Kitty quickly, she having willingly put her life on the line to show her trust for me...


	4. Stupid, Stinking Jackelhead Demon!

**Unconscious Summons**

Apparently I would have been better off with one of the other comments. Nathaniel shrieked again, this time cutting off halfway through due to either me stepping forward to put a hand over his mouth, or the fact that he fainted, or both.

At least he'll shut up, I thought, but now I have to carry him. Ugh! Maybe I'd be better off knocking him up against the wall until he died, and then cutting him with a shard of glass to make it look like he was the one whose blood was spilled. Even though I'd combust, it'd be much more refreshing than dying a slow death protecting him...and definitely a lot more fun.

But even I knew that I couldn't do that. So, I carried him out to his chaffeur1, drove him home, deposited him in his chair, and rushed out of the office to find Kitty.

Late at night, I flew as an orb of light over London, looking desperately for Kitty. I knew that if I didn't find her soon, I wouldn't have much of a chance later. My mind, being more intelligent than a humans mind by more than ten times, had already picked out the spots that were most likely she would be taken2.

As I swooped into the dark alley, I saw a trail of blood- a lot of it-never a good sign-and followed it. I rounded the corner, glimpsed a flash of red and gray with a glance of brown, decided that it was a trick of the 3 light, and picked up a scrap of paper from the ground. It read:

You have no chance. Give up, Bartimaeus.

-Jackelhead

1. Who, by the way, was absolutely**delicious**.

2. I didn't find her, of course, but I found something else.

3. Bad. For such a popular city, London has terrible lighting problems in alleys...


End file.
